Since it seems to be under-represented on this list, I'd like to put in a
thank-you for the faction that wants to keep things as simple as possible. It's
always hard to turn down a feature for the sake of "ease of use", which is hard
to specify, and is perceived differently by different developers. But the
current JDOM satisfies the needs of a huge number of people. Adding more
functionality or flexibility will reduce the ease of use, without any added
benefit for these people. And, if you add 3 features, each that don't impact
the ease of use by very much, then all of the sudden you've impacted the ease
of use by a lot.
Since XML can be used for just about anything, there will never be a single XML
API that satisfies everyone. JDOM is going for the biggest bang for the buck,
and I think that's a great segment to hit.
Alex